


No Dogs Allowed

by Rakefetzyz



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 11:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13410072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rakefetzyz/pseuds/Rakefetzyz
Summary: Why Matt really shouldn’t get a Seeing Eye dog and why Foggy and Karen think he should.





	No Dogs Allowed

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during the Nelson and Murdock days, before Foggy or Karen know about Matt’s secret.  
> Characters belong to Marvel and Netflix.

“I’m not getting a dog! “ Matt stated firmly for the third, or was it the fourth time, that week. It was also the third or fourth time he had come into the office with fresh bruises on his face and cuts on his hands.

  
Foggy and Karen didn’t answer.

  
“Did you two just look at each other and raise your eyebrows?” Matt asked.

  
“We think it’s about time to check it out,” Foggy answered.

  
“I’ve been doing some research,“ Karen admitted.

  
Matt groaned.

  
Karen ignored him . “I found out that there are guide dog schools all over the country. But I think you should consider The Seeing Eye in Morristown, New Jersey. That’s only about thirty miles from here.”

  
“I’m not interested, “ Matt insisted.

  
“Well I am,” said Foggy. “Is that where people go to buy a Seeing Eye dog?”

  
“It doesn’t work that way,” Karen answered. “You need to apply. If you’re accepted, you go to stay at the school for a few weeks, while you learn to work together with the dog.”

  
“Uh, could we start going over our cases now?” Matt asked pointedly.

  
His friends paid him no attention.

  
“How do you apply?” Foggy sounded like he was really interested.

  
“I have the Seeing Eye website open to the application process, “said Karen. “Matt, would you humor me and just listen while I go over it?”

  
“I take it neither of you is going to get to work until I do.” Sounds of affirmation from both of them.

  
“You fill out an application,” Karen continued. “It says you can do that online. You need to submit a medical report from your doctor. They send someone from the school to interview you and you need references.”

  
“Sounds like applying to law school,” quipped Foggy. “Use me as a reference. I’ll embellish enough to make sure they take you.”

  
“You could use my name, too” said Karen, “but I haven’t known you that long. Do you think your priest would give you a reference ? A priest would impress them.”

  
“I don’t need references because I’m not applying,” Matt insisted again.

  
“Matt, please just listen till I’m finished,” Karen sounded pretty insistent too. “I’m looking at the criteria and I don’t see why you couldn't do this.”

  
“What are the criteria?” Foggy still seemed fascinated.

  
“Well age isn’t a problem,” Karen went on. “You just need to be between sixteen and seventy-five. Your degree of vision can’t interfere with working with the dog. I think that means if you have too much useful vision, it could prevent you from trusting the dog to lead you. From what you’ve said, Matt, you don't have any vision at all.”

  
“Well, no, but…” Matt broke off. The problem wasn’t his non-existent vision. The problem was that he wouldn’t be able to trust a dog over his other heightened senses. Besides a dog wasn’t inanimate like a cane. He couldn’t just ditch it if he needed to run up a fire escape in order to rescue someone.

  
“You need to be in good physical and mental health,” Karen kept reading. “You’re in good health.”

  
“I’m not sure about the mental part,” Foggy teased.

  
Matt gave a sarcastic laugh. But was he in good mental health? He guessed that masking his face and beating up people would probably count against him.

  
“You need to have a routine for traveling with the dog.” Karen went on. “That’s all right. You come here every day, you go out, you go to church. You have a good travel routine.”

  
His daytime routine, maybe. But what about night? Somehow, Matt didn’t think going out to do battle with mobsters would be considered a good routine for a dog.

  
Karen kept on, “You need sufficient hearing ability. There’s nothing wrong with your hearing is there?”

  
“Uh, no, but …” Would his ability to hear changes in peoples’ heart rates and conversations from the next block be considered a problem or a good thing? This time even Matt didn’t know.

  
Karen still wasn’t deterred. “You need to provide a clean and safe environment for the dog. Well, the office and your apartment aren’t fancy but they are clean and organized. I can help you set things up to make the dog comfortable. I’m sure Foggy would too.

  
“I nodded,” Foggy announced. “We'll make sure the dog has a stable environment.“

  
“Uh, I’m sure you would, but..” Matt was also pretty sure that safe environments did not include human traffickers or supernatural ninjas .

  
“That’s about it. There’s another page here that lists what they expect of students, but it’s mostly repetition. Well, at the end it says they expect you to give them a truthful and accurate representation of yourself during the application process.”

  
Matt guffawed, then covered it by coughing. Barring Stick and Elektra and maybe Claire, he hadn’t given a “truthful and accurate representation” of himself to anyone since the accident that started it all. He wondered what would happen if he did try to give a truthful account to a Seeing Eye interviewer and decided it was best not to take that thought any further.

  
“So will you please just think about it?” Karen concluded, “I’ll bookmark the site and we can talk about it later. But it looks like you’d qualify, no problem.”

  
“Come on, Matt, just think about the idea, “Foggy added, “I hate seeing you get hurt so often.”

  
Matt mumbled something that could be taken for a yes, just so they’d finally settle down and start working. Then he went into his office.

  
As soon as he had his back turned, he gritted his teeth and muttered under his breath again, “I’m not getting a dog!”

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Information about applications to the Seeing Eye comes from their website: www.seeingeye.org  
> Most of the information is paraphrased because the original phrasing would not fit well in dialogue.  
> The part about giving “a truthful and accurate representation of yourself” is a direct quote.


End file.
